Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Injecting the power supply while on

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Doctoral student Dheeraj Mohata, left, and Suman Datta, professor of electrical engineering, teamed with researchers at the University of Notre Dame to announce a breakthrough in the development of tunneling field effect transistors, a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level. (Photo credit: Curtis Chan)

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

2009 Crystal Apple Award winners and reception.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Portrait of Franklin Dollar, professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. Dollar got both his Masters in Electrical Engineering in 2010 and his PhD in Applied Physics in 2012, from the University of Michigan.

Dollar’s work involves making the plasmas and seeing what they do, and optimizing experiments to produce X-rays or particle beams. These have applications in medicine, semiconductor engineering, basic research, and more. Dollar describes the experiment he and his team are currently running as “one of the most powerful interactions in the known universe.” When the infrared laser fires it is invisible to human eyes. Additionally the laser is conveyed inside a series of metal boxes that prevent any of the light from escaping. Even so, the concrete reinforced Control Room is the nearest anyone wants to be because at peak power the laser is three petawatts, or more than 100 times the global electricity production, but only for a few quintillionths of a second. The laser itself does not create radiation, but when it reaches the experimental room, the light interacts and generates radiation. There are extensive protocols for making sure that no people are in the area, since unnecessary radiation dose is never a good thing.

Dollar got both his Masters in Electrical Engineering in 2010 and his PhD in Applied Physics in 2012, from the University of Michigan. The students on his team from Physics and Astronomy at UC, Irvine are PhD’s Josh Lewis, Christopher Gardner, Victor Flores, and undergrad Ruben Gonzalez.

Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Julio Urbina, associate professor of electrical engineering, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to return and teach in his native Peru for the 2014-15 academic year. (Photo credit: Curtis Chan)

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.

Spring Graduation Celebration for Undergraduate students on Monday, April 27, 2026 at LeaderBank Pavillion in Boston's Seaport.